The Decision to Forget

Unless
you KNOW something, you CANNOT dissociate it. Knowledge therefore
PRECEDES dissociation, and dissociation is nothing more than a DECISION
TO FORGET. What has been FORGOTTEN then appears to be fearful, but ONLY
because the dissociation was an ATTACK ON TRUTH You are fearful only
BECAUSE you have forgotten. And you have REPLACED your knowledge by an
awareness of dreams, BECAUSE YOU ARE AFRAID OF YOUR DISSOCIATION, NOT of
what you have dissociated. Even in this world's therapy, when
dissociated material is ACCEPTED, it ceases to be fearful, for the laws
of mind always hold.

But
to give up the dissociation of REALITY brings more than merely lack of
fear. In THIS decision lie joy, and peace, and the glory of creation.
Offer the Holy Spirit only your will to remember, for He retains the
knowledge of God and of you FOR you, waiting for your acceptance. Give
up gladly EVERYTHING that would stand in the way of your remembering,
for God is in your memory, and His Voice will tell you that you are part
of Him, when you are willing to remember Him, and know your own reality
again. Let nothing in this world delay your remembering of Him, for in
this remembering is the knowledge of YOURSELF.

To
remember is merely to restore to your mind WHAT IS ALREADY THERE. You do
not make what you remember; you merely accept again what has BEEN made
AND REJECTED. The ability to ACCEPT truth in this world is the
perceptual counterpart of creating in the Kingdom. God WILL do His part
if you will do yours, and HIS return in exchange for yours IS the
exchange of knowledge for perception. NOTHING is beyond His will for
you. But signify your will to remember Him, and behold! He will give you
everything but for your asking.

Whenever
you attack, you are denying YOURSELF. You are specifically teaching
yourself that you are NOT what you are. YOUR denial of reality precludes
ACCEPTANCE of God's gift, BECAUSE YOU HAVE ACCEPTED SOMETHING ELSE IN
ITS PLACE. If you understand that the misuse of defenses always
constitutes an attack on truth, and truth is God, you will realize why
this is ALWAYS fearful. If you further recognize that you are PART of
God, you will also understand why it is that YOU ALWAYS ATTACK YOURSELF
FIRST.

ALL
attack is self attack. It cannot BE anything else. Arising from your OWN
decision NOT to be what you ARE, IT IS AN ATTACK ON YOUR IDENTIFICATION.
Attack is thus the way in which your identification is lost, because,
when you attack, you MUST have forgotten what you are. And if your
reality is God's, when YOU attack, you are not remembering HIM. This
is not because He is gone, but because you are ACTIVELY WILLING NOT TO
REMEMBER HIM.

If
you realized the complete havoc this makes of your peace of mind, you
COULD not make such an insane decision. You make it only because you
still believe that it can GET YOU SOMETHING YOU WANT. It follows, then,
that you want something OTHER than peace of mind, and you have not
considered what it must be. Yet the logical outcome of your decision is
perfectly clear, if you will LOOK at it. By deciding AGAINST your
reality, you have made yourself vigilant AGAINST God and His Kingdom.
And it is THIS vigilance that makes you afraid to remember Him.

You
have NOT attacked God, and you DO love Him. Can you change your reality?
No-one can will to destroy himself. When you think you are attacking
your SELF, it is a sure sign that you hate what you think you are. And
this, and ONLY this, can BE attacked by you. What you THINK you are CAN
be hateful, and what this strange image makes you do can be very
destructive. The destruction is no more real than the image, but those
who make idols DO worship them. The idols are nothing, but their
worshippers are the Sons of God in sickness.

God
would have them released from their sickness, and returned to His Mind.
He will not limit your power to help them, because He has given it TO
you. Do not be afraid of it, because it is your salvation. What
Comforter can there be for the sick children of God except His power
through YOU? Remember that it does not matter where in the Sonship He is
accepted. He is ALWAYS accepted for all, and when your mind receives
Him, the remembrance of Him awakens throughout the Sonship.

Heal
your brothers simply by accepting God FOR them. Your minds are not
separate, and God has only one channel for healing, because He has but
one Son. His remaining communication link with all His Children joins
them together, and them to Him. To be aware of this is to heal them,
because it is the awareness that no one is separate, and so no one is
sick. To believe that a Son of God can be sick is to believe that PART
OF GOD CAN SUFFER.

Love
CANNOT suffer, because it cannot attack. The remembrance of love
therefore brings invulnerability with it. Do not side with sickness in
the presence of a Son of God, even if HE believes in it, for YOUR
acceptance of God in him ACKNOWLEDGES the love of God which he has
forgotten. Your recognition of him as PART OF GOD teaches him the truth
about himself, WHICH HE IS DENYING. Would you STRENGTHEN his denial of
God, and thus lose sight of YOURSELF? Or would you remind him of his
wholeness, and remember your Creator WITH him?

To
believe a Son of God is sick is to worship the same idol he does. God
created love, NOT idolatry. ALL forms of idolatry are caricatures of
creation, taught by sick minds, who are too divided to know that
Creation SHARES power, and NEVER usurps it. Sickness is idolatry,
because it is the belief that POWER CAN BE TAKEN FROM YOU. But this is
impossible, because you are part of God, Who IS all power. A sick god
MUST be an idol, made in the image of what its maker thinks HE is. And
that is exactly what the ego DOES perceive in a Son of God; - a sick
god, self-created, self-sufficient, very vicious, and very vulnerable.

Is
this the idol you would worship? Is this the image you would be vigilant
to SAVE? Are you REALLY afraid of losing THIS? Look calmly at the
logical conclusion of the ego's thought-system, and judge whether its
offering is really what you want, for this IS what it offers you. To
obtain THIS, you are willing to attack the Divinity of your brothers,
and thus lose sight of YOURS. And you are willing to keep it hidden, to
protect this idol, which you think will save you from dangers WHICH THE
IDOL ITSELF STANDS FOR, but which do not exist.

There
are no idolaters in the Kingdom, but there is great appreciation for
every Soul which God created, because of the calm knowledge that each
one is part of Him. God's Son knows no idols, but he DOES know His
Father. Health in this world is the counterpart of value in Heaven. It
is not my merit that I contribute to you, but my love, for you do not
value yourselves. When you do not value yourself you become sick, but MY
value of you can heal you, because the value of God's Son is one.

When
I said, "my peace I give unto you," I meant it. Peace came from God
through me to YOU. It was FOR you, but you did not ask. When a brother
is sick, it is because HE IS NOT ASKING FOR PEACE, and therefore he does
not know he HAS it. The ACCEPTANCE of peace is the DENIAL of illusion,
and sickness IS an illusion. Yet every Son of God has the power to deny
illusions ANYWHERE in the Kingdom, merely by denying them completely in
himself.

I
CAN heal you, because I KNOW you. I know your value FOR you, and it is
this value that makes you whole. But a whole mind is not idolatrous, and
does not know of conflicting laws. I will heal you merely because I have
only ONE message, and it is true. Your faith in it will make you whole,
when you have faith in me. I do not bring God's message with
deception, and you will learn this as you learn that you ALWAYS receive
as much as you ACCEPT. You could accept peace NOW, for everyone you
meet, and offer them perfect freedom from ALL illusions, BECAUSE YOU
HEARD. But have no other gods before Him, or you will NOT hear.

God
is not jealous of the gods you make, but YOU are. You would save them
and serve them, because you believe that THEY MADE YOU. You think they
are your father, because you are projecting onto them the fearful fact
that YOU MADE THEM TO REPLACE GOD. But when they seem to speak to you,
remember that NOTHING can replace God, and whatever replacements you
have attempted ARE nothing. Very simply, then, you may BELIEVE you are
afraid of nothingNESS, but you are REALLY afraid of NOTHING: And in THAT
awareness you ARE healed.

You
WILL hear the god you listen to. You MADE the god of sickness, and BY
making him, you made yourself ABLE to hear him. But you did NOT create
him, because he is NOT the Will of the Father. He is therefore not
eternal, and will be UNmade for you, the instant you signify your
willingness to accept ONLY the eternal. If God has but one Son, there is
but one God. You share reality with Him, BECAUSE reality is not divided.
To accept other gods before Him, is to place other images before
YOURSELF. You do not realize how much you listen to your gods, and how
vigilant you are on their behalf. But they exist only because you honor
them.

Place
honor where it is due, and peace WILL be yours. It is your inheritance
from your REAL Father. You cannot make your father, and the father you
made did NOT make you. Honor is not due to illusions, for to honor them
is to honor nothing. But fear is not due them either, for nothing cannot
be fearful. You have chosen to fear love BECAUSE of its perfect
harmlessness. And because of this fear, you have been willing to give up
your own perfect helpfulness, and your own perfect Help. Only at the
altar of God will you find peace, and this altar is in you, because God
put it there. His Voice still calls you to return, and He will be heard,
when you place no other gods before Him.

You
can give up the god of sickness for your brothers; in fact, you would
HAVE to do so, if you give him up for yourself. For if you see him
anywhere, YOU are accepting him. And if you accept him, you WILL bow
down and worship him, because HE WAS MADE AS GOD'S REPLACEMENT. He is
the belief that YOU CAN CHOOSE WHICH GOD IS REAL. Although it is
perfectly clear that this has nothing to do with REALITY, it is equally
clear that it has EVERYTHING to do with REALITY AS YOU PERCEIVE IT. All
magic is a form of reconciling the irreconcilable. All religion is the
recognition that the irreconcilable cannot BE reconciled.